Auto News From COX Automotive

Welcome to From the Newsroom, a roundup of news from Cox Automotive and perspectives from its analysts and experts on topics dominating the automotive industry.

New research from Cox Automotive, Future of Fleets: Path to EV Adoption, was published today. The study reveals that, compared to vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines (ICE), fleet owners are more satisfied with electric vehicles (EVs) despite higher acquisition costs and more frequent service and maintenance.

In the Auto Market Report video from Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke published this morning, he notes, “The retail sales trends are beginning to recover from the CDK outage that impacted sales and reporting over the last four weeks. While consumer spending overall is weak, retail vehicle demand remains resilient but clearly constrained by affordability.”

As noted by Smoke, the widespread software outage made it challenging to provide a comprehensive report on new- and used-vehicle inventory for June. However, we reported the current data while acknowledging that the market is expected to fully recover in the coming months.

As a key measure in the wholesale market, the mid-month Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index increased through the first 15 days of the month, marking the first month-over-month increase in July since 2018, excluding the pandemic period. For market analysis, you can watch the Manheim Market Insights video from Jeremy Robb, senior director of Economic and Industry Insights.

Visit the Cox Automotive Newsroom for the latest on the industry’s most important topics. Bookmark the Auto Market Snapshot, a one-stop dashboard for the data our team is tracking.

Cox Automotive Study: Fleet Owners More Satisfied With EVs Than ICE Alternatives, Despite Higher Acquisition Costs, Frequency of Service and Maintenance

New research released today by Cox Automotive shows that fleet owners operating both electric vehicles (EVs) and their traditional, fuel-burning counterparts have higher levels of satisfaction with their EVs. The Future of Fleets: Path to EV Adoption suggests that, compared to vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines (ICE), EVs bring higher satisfaction scores among fleet owners in key metrics such as “overall satisfaction,” “cost of ownership” and “vehicle usage and capabilities.”

“The electric-vehicle story is much larger than just the retail story,” said Zo Rahim, senior analyst of Research and Market Intelligence at Cox Automotive. “In many ways, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution for many fleet operations, which often have set routes of known distances, vehicles that routinely overnight in the same location, and operations that prioritize the cost of ownership. The fleet business is significant in the U.S. market, and we expect the EV share of the fleet market to expand in the coming years.”

Read a summary of the study findings and download the study summary .